Made in Britain (or will be)... Production of Golden Wonder's The Nation's Noodles will move from China to Leeds

A British food producer is moving its production of instant noodles from China to Britain after discovering it can make them just as cheaply at home.

Symington's, which makes Golden Wonder's dehydrated The Nation's Noodles, Normous Noodles, Naked Noodles, and Mug Shots, is cancelling its contracts with factories in Guangzhou, on the banks of the Pearl River, and Hangzhou, and preparing to manufacture them in Britain.

The Leeds-based firm says rising wages in China, plus the increasing cost and inconvenience of shipping the noodles back here, are behind its decision to move noodle production to the UK after seven years.

Henrik Pade, business development
manager at Symington's, said: 'We can produce for roughly the same cost
today in Yorkshire as we are out of China.

'If you go back in time, it would probably have been 30-35 per cent less [in China].'

He also told the FT
the decision to make the noodles at a new factory in Leeds was also
influenced by the need for quicker response times.

The move by Symington's is the latest
example of 're-shoring' - the opposite of 'off-shoring' - whereby production is relocated back home from
China because it is cheaper to do so.

One British manufacturer is selling
rice cookers to China, while Toyota produces cars in its factory near
Derby for export to Japan.